


Your Omega

by Nethvester



Series: Mine, Yours, Ours [2]
Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Alpha/Omega, M/M, Mpreg, shifter clans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 20:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19034809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nethvester/pseuds/Nethvester
Summary: this whole series started out being named "AkiCat"





	1. one

He regretted losing his body guard now. Surely the thugs chasing him would have thought twice about shooting at him had his guard been with him. Though, had the man been with him they'd have never even thought about chasing him, because the guard would have prevented him from staking out the councilor's flagrant disregard of the law. That placed his current predicament directly at the feet of his body guard's boss, the only Alpha of any clan that had looked his way even once.  
  
He took a fleeting glance behind him and nearly crowed with glee at the distance he had gained. Just a few more streets and alleys and he'd lose them even faster than he'd lost his bulky body guard. He jumped onto a short stack of pallets and used them to vault himself over the chain link fence that blocked the alley at its halfway point. He could hear the cussing fade away behind him as the two thugs were slowed by the climb.  
  
He slowed his steps as he hurried into the bustling crowd on the streets of Shinagawa. He flipped the hood up on his sleeveless hoodie and carefully worked his way through the throng of bodies. He waited with his head down but ears peeled as the crowed stood at a crosswalk and though he started with numerous people in front of him he was the first to reach the other side.  
  
An hour later he exited the editor's office with a fat wad of cash for the photos he delivered. He walked through the now bustling morning pedestrians and started thinking about how much he'd have left after he paid the rent, heat, and water bills. All of them were late. It wasn't like it really mattered to the building supervisor. The Alpha had informed the supervisor that, if Aki were ever behind by more than a couple of weeks to let the man know and he'd ensure things were taken care of. Just thinking of the Alpha's insistence on interfering made him irritated. He could pay his own bills damn it.  
  
He clamored down to the subway and swiped his card. There was an older woman trying to get through the gate and looking very confused. He hopped back over the turnstile and bowed to her. "May I help, Oneesan?"  
  
The graying woman grinned and then fumbled with her pass, "Arigato, binanshi, but I just need to figure out how to get my pass to work?"  
  
Aki looked at the pass. It was from last year and had expired. The turnstiles wouldn't recognize it. He smiled in sympathy. Unlike him the woman wouldn't physically be able to, much less feel comfortable, jumping the gates. He carefully passed his own card over the scanner as she tried her expired card a second time. The gate recognized his and allowed the woman through. He glanced around and then jumped them.  
  
He stood on the platform with her and ensured he helped her onto the train. It was packed and though offered by a young mother the older woman refused to sit and spent the ride playing peekaboo with the baby. She got off two stops before Aki but thanked him for keeping her steady on the ride and waved to the baby one last time as she exited.  
  
Aki just smiled back and squeezed the expired card he'd switched with his own deep in his hoodie's pocket. He prayed the Alpha wouldn't report it stolen when he stopped swiping it at the stop he usually got on the train at in the mornings.  
  
He looked up as he walked from the train towards home. It was cloudy and soon rain fell in slow random fat drops from the lead colored sky. He had no umbrella and found himself lucky there was an old Ramen shop with a wide overhang between where he was and his apartment. He'd made extra rice balls the day before so he'd have something when he got back to the apartment but the combination of the slow but thick drizzle and tempting smell of Ramen convinced him to part with his hard earned money.  
  
He ducked under the hanging curtains and took a seat. The man dealing with the noodles looked up and nodded as Aki pushed several hundred yen notes across the counter. Even with the cost he still had plenty to cover the rent and outstanding bills.  
  
He ate two bowls before the rain stopped. The cook was generous with the toppings on the first though he got only the normal portions on the second. Ramen was quite near one of Aki's favorite foods. It was only topped by seaweed salad. Though, that treat was hard to come by in shops near his neighborhood. It was pretty cruddy when he thought about it. Still he could make it himself if he bought the ingredients.  
  
He nearly groaned then. He couldn't hop the turnstiles in Shinjuku and he'd promised the Bastard Alpha to spend the day with the kits while they were out of school on Sunday. So much for making any salad, he'd have to get a new train pass instead. He glanced up at the retreating clouds and pushed his hands deeper in to the hoodie's pockets. Still he was glad he'd been able to help the old woman. It felt for a short bit like he'd had a real grandmother while he aided her and kept her steady on the train.  
  
He groaned aloud when he saw the limo parked in front of his apartment building. He did glare at the bespectacled man that let the very Alpha he had 'not' been thinking about all day out of the vehicle. He ignored the raven haired, muscular, broad shouldered man exiting the back seat. He refused to stop on his way to the manager's office.  
  
The door made a chime as he entered the office of the building's manager. The beady eyed man looked up and pushed his own set of wire glasses up his nonexistent nose, "Ah, Takaba from 6D, I take it you are here to pay your past due rent?"  
  
Aki swallowed the retort he always had for the man's sneering tone. He wouldn't live in the man's building at all had the idiot Alpha outside not ensured he couldn't get a place anywhere else. He nodded and slapped the full month's rent on the desk, "The past due amount along with the rest of the month." The pictures of the politician and the underage girl had gotten him front page. That always came with a bonus.  
  
The wiry little man sniffed and counted out the bills before pushing them back to the boy. "I am impressed." His tone belied his statement, but it was the sneering comment that followed that sent rage running through Aki. "However, I will no longer be accepting payment from you. You are always late and your 'benefactor' has ensured you are paid up for the rest of year." He smiled then, "Kirishima-san said something about Asami-sama needing to speak to you." He shooed Aki towards the door with his hand and turned back to his book-keeping.  
  
Aki snatched the bills back off the desk. He was livid. If it wasn't for the fact the apartment manager was looking for any excuse to evict him he'd yell the thoughts inside his head at the man. He turned then; no, he'd yell them at the man causing him so much grief. He exited the first floor office with that intention.  
  
Only Suoh was at the limo and the understanding that the Alpha was waiting in his apartment without and invitation fed the anger curling through his gut. He stormed up the metal stairs and slammed his apartment door open. The man was settled on the threadbare couch. His dark elegant suit at odds with the yellow striped paisley pattern fading from the thin cloth that covered the couch's back and cushions. He was smoking one of his expensive cigarettes which only added fuel to his anger, "I've told you not to smoke those things in here."  
  
He slammed the door behind him and strode across the small space. Asami thought the young man would stop in front of him and give him yet another of his angry tirades. They always made him smile, albeit only on the inside. His little Omega was not meek nor mild and though, easily half Asami's size he had zero qualms about going toe to toe with him whenever he felt Asami had overstepped the boundaries he continually tried to establish between them. That Asami only ever saw his Omega's attempts to dominate him as the swatting of a tiny kitten was never mentioned. "You lost your guard again today."  
  
"Yeah, so what. He was cramping my style." Aki pulled the curtains back from the sliding glass doors on his balcony and slid the door open. It was starting to get chilly at night; he hoped the smell would clear before it got to cold. He really couldn't afford the bill for heating up the apartment. Stupid three piece suit wearing Alpha.  
  
He ignored the man as he stomped into the largest of the three bedrooms. Stripping out of his jacket and pulling his small canvas camera bag from over his shoulder. He spent several minutes extracting and putting away his camera and the lens he used for stakeouts away in their storage before emptying the rest of his equipment from the pockets of the jacket and tossing the long sleeved checkered hoodie towards his laundry basket.  
  
The Alpha waited until he'd stomped back out of the bedroom. His cigarette out of sight and the smoke mostly cleared from the main room. He frowned at Akihito before saying, "I would ask nicely for you to stop. However we both know you'll go back to losing them as soon as it suites you. So I've come up with another solution." He nodded at his second.  
  
"Nicely! First you never ask, you demand. Secondly, what do you mean you've 'come up with another solution'?" Aki crossed the small space and stood in front of Asami with his fist curled and on his hips. "It had better be for you to pull your goons back to your own business and stay out of mine."  
  
While Akihito was yelling at his boss, Kirishima crossed to the only empty bedroom of the 3LDK and knocked softly on the door. Aki glanced over his shoulder as a young sandy haired blond exited the room followed by another young man with long dark brown locks. Other people being in his space shocked him enough he couldn't find words.  
  
"These are your new roommates." Asami introduced them, "Hitarashi Takato is twenty-two and a blonde Tanuki shifter." He pointed to the sandy blonde. He then pointed at the other male, "Ikehata Kou is a brown Sable shifter and twenty-one. They will be living with you and are both small enough in their shifted forms that you can take them with you on your stake outs."  
  
The two men bowed to Akihito saying, "It is a pleasure to meet you Takaba-sama."  
  
Aki still paused at the surname. It was another of the 'solutions' that his Alpha had devised. He couldn't have an apartment if he didn't have a family name. So Asami had pulled the surnames of several of his clan's childless families and narrowed the list down to three that were old enough to be Aki's grandparents. Then he'd arranged for Aki to meet them.  
  
The first two meetings hadn't gone well. The older couples were eager to please their clan Alpha however they were unable to keep the sneers about Aki's unusual size and coloring from their faces. That combined with their insulting comments about Aki's status as a male Omega had ensured Asami took them off the list before the meetings even ended.  
  
The last couple was nearing a hundred and unlike most of the shifters Aki could remember meeting had actually looked old in their human forms. They said nothing during the interview about Aki's secondary gender nor did they find his coloring anything but adorable. Best of all the woman had fed him nearly a dozen freshly made red bean mochi. Aki had forgotten why they were there and about the paperwork to add him to the old couple's family registry. While he'd only seen the couple one other time in the past four months he was officially a Takaba and a distant cousin by marriage to his Alpha's maternal grandmother.  
  
He stiffened at his own thoughts; Asami Ryuichi was not 'his' Alpha. He was just the Alpha that kept trying to lay claim to him. He frowned and turned on the cat that was giving him far too much to think about. "Get them out." He pointed to the two guards. "I'm not living with strangers."  
  
"You will get to know them soon enough, Kitten." Asami stood with that statement and gestured. Kirishima and the two young guards left the living room. "Your name is on the lease, Kitten but I own the building." He stepped up to Akihito and secured him with an arm behind his back and one hand wrapped in his hair.  
  
Aki squirmed in the man's hold. Partially to see if he'd figured out how to escape it yet and partially because he knew that what was coming next always unnerved him. Asami leaned down and took his lips. The kiss was slow and the man allowed Akihito to keep his lips pressed together and fighting his probing tongue for several seconds longer than he normally did.  
  
Finally though he tugged on Aki's hair and gently stroked the shell of his ears. This always caused the boy to mewl and Asami immediately took advantage of the boy's open lips. His tongue delved into the moist cavern of the boy's mouth probing at its deepest parts. He licked his way across the front and back of Akihito's teeth and lathed the roof of his mouth until Aki didn't know which tongue was his and which was Asami's.  
  
Aki always started the kisses off pushing at the man's white linen covered chest. He always ended the kiss gripping the fabric and tugging the man towards him. Typically Asami kept tight control of both their bodies. He never crowded Aki's form beyond his lips and mouth and likewise never allowed Aki to cuddle into his own hips or shelter against his chest.  
  
The claim he intended to stake was for the long term and he'd have his Kitten chose it while sober and of calm mind if at all possible. The last four months had been hard. The stress of not having claimed his mate was starting to affect his personality in both public and private. He'd promised the kit he'd give him until his next heat to make the decision. That was a total of six months of waiting.  
  
His Kitten hadn't bent yet. Worse each time they were alone the musky scent of arousal his Kitten gave off in his presence continued to grow thicker. It was all Asami could do when they touched to not throw the tiny boy over his shoulder, carry him back to his bed and trap him there until Aki had accepted his bite and his seed.  
  
Asami groaned aloud and all but shoved Aki away from him. Aki knew to take the reprieve and used the momentum to step backwards until he hit the wall behind them. Nearly the whole of the room now separated their bodies, but he knew couldn't escape. The scents of tobacco, alcohol, and comfort flooded his senses. It was backed by the arousal both he and his Alpha were giving off after the intense kiss.  
  
Aki was starting to lean forward when Asami growled again and strode out of the apartment. He barely paused long enough to shove his feet into his dress shoes. Aki was surprised the door didn't slam behind the man.  
  
He slowly allowed his body to slide down the wall behind him. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms about them. The encounters had to stop. He wasn't going to make six months at this rate and the whole purpose of waiting wasn't even being addressed. Aki knew next to nothing about the Alpha.  
  
Next to nothing if one didn't count the fact he knew Asami Ryuichi was a Clan Alpha to a varied group of shifters or that the man was both the CEO and founder of Tokyo's famous Sion Corporation which owned several hotels, financial firms, three bio research and two pharmaceutical research companies, twelve restaurants, and no less than six of the top twenty rated clubs in Tokyo. He knew nothing beyond the fact his Alpha was kind to the point of spoiling to his niece and nephew; he maintained shifter friendly businesses and employed anyone willing to actually work regardless of personal circumstances.  
  
He was willing to admit that he knew his Alpha was one of the richest men in Japan and the most controlling egotistical bastards that Aki had ever met. Yeah, he didn't know squat about Asami Ryuichi.  
  
Which always made him wonder why he was having a hard time just accepting the man's claim? It wasn't like he would ever get a better offer. Aki shook his head at his own confusing thoughts and pushed his self back to his feet and glanced around the apartment.  
  
It was already clear that his two new roommates had settled in. There were several new games for the PlayStation Asami had bought him along with an Xbox now hooked up to the large screen TV. There was a red electric kettle on the kitchen island next to his blue one, a pop up bread toaster next to his toaster oven and several new take out menus in the small rack screwed to the kitchen wall near the light switch.  
  
As he looked around he realized that there were new throw pillows on the threadbare couch along with two new blankets to keep his overly large, fluffy, Chenille knitted, teal one company. There were also two new chairs at the refinished white kitchen table along with two new place settings both in dark grey. They actually went well with the teal place mats, teal linen napkins, and rectangular black chargers. Someone had already painted the chairs white and reupholstered the seats in the same black and white tiger striped fabric Aki had done the others in.  
  
He sighed at the changes; his new body guards were here to stay. He might as well get to know them.  
  
With that thought he knocked on the bedroom door they'd retreated behind at Asami's unspoken command earlier. When one of them called out Aki opened the door slightly and stuck his head around it. The two slightly older shifters were emptying boxes and Aki fully opened the door and entered at the wave of the one he remembered Asami calling Ikehata Kou.  
  
Aki stood uncertainly just inside the doorway after entering. He'd never met shifters that weren't cats before. Though after meeting Asami nearly five months ago he'd learned a lot about their world; hidden though it was from most humans. Still these two men had been forced to live with him. He was pretty positive they hadn't volunteered. Nobody wanted to live with a runt especially one as abnormal as he apparently was.  
  
So he wasn't certain how to interact with the two new people in the apartment. He rocked forward and back on his feet before clearing his throat and saying, "So, um, there is another bedroom. It doesn't have any windows like this one, but I don't have to have two. I can move the stuff I have in there. It won't take more than the afternoon."  
  
The older of the two men, Hitarashi Takato Aki thought his name was, turned from where he was hanging clothes in the large closet. He smiled at Aki and shook his head, "It is no bother, Tabaka-sama. We would actually prefer to share the room.  
  
Aki shook his head at the address, "Please don't call me that. My name is Akihito. Though, I tend to think of myself as Aki. I'd be pleased if you'd call me one of those."  
  
"Then you must call us Kou and Takato. It would be good to be friends since we will be both living together and working together." The dark brown haired man said. He smiled and held out his hand in a western style of greeting. "I am Kou and a brown Sable in my shifted form."  
  
The other man stepped up and held his own hand out, "I'm Takato and when allowed, I actually prefer to spend quite a bit of my time in my shifted Tanuki form. Let me know if it bothers you."  
  
"Oh, no it won't bother me. I spent most of the past four years shifted. It has actually taken a while to get used to not having to do so every night." He scratched behind his head and laughed. Then he remembered why he'd knocked on their door to begin with. "I'm about to make some food for lunch and tomorrow's breakfast. I like to have something already made for breakfast since I'm never sure what time I'll be eating it." He chuckled, "Some mornings I just come back to the apartment and crash to be honest."  
  
He looked up then, "I have really weird work hours and if you're….." He trailed off. He didn't really want any babysitters certainly not two and while they'd be easy enough to deal with as their shifted animals on stake outs he was certain they had orders to follow him everywhere. He couldn't take animals to many of the photo shoots he was contracted for how was he going to explain the two of them?  
  
"Don't worry about it, Akihito." Kou said. "We are prepared to adjust to your schedule. Don't be concerned about always feeding us either. We are both capable of make meals and cleaning. We would be honored if you'd allow us to share the chores equally."  
  
Aki hadn't even thought about that. With two additional people the apartment was going to harder to keep clean. He was glad he wouldn't have to pick up after all three of them. His bedroom looked like a monsoon had blown through it most days, but Aki was a stickler about the common areas being clean and tidy. He always spent part of his day ensuring the bathroom sparkled and the living areas were dusted and straight. He never left a sink of dishes or even one drying in the rack or in the small dishwasher that came with the place. Everything had a place in his kitchen and he put everything in its place.  
  
That though made him pause he was very particular about how the living places looked and while the added things had been placed as neatly as his own he wasn't certain what the two men thought of the spotless rooms. He suddenly didn't want anyone else touching the common areas. What if they didn't clean to his specifications?  
  
He chuckled nervously, "No, it is fine. I'm sort of a stickler about how things are done and where things are put. It would probably be easier if I just did it all myself."  
  
The Tanuki shifter laughed, "Don't worry, Akihito. Kou and I are pretty obsessive compulsive about our living spaces being clean as well. Just show us where things belong and how to ensure you're happy with a cleaning job and I'm certain we can reach your standards."  
  
Aki paused then nodded, "OK." He tried not to sound worried or relieved, but figured he'd failed at both when the Sable shifter chuckled. "Well I'm about to cook and fixing food for three is as easy as fixing for one. Would you care to join me?"  
  
Takato and Kou both nodded and Takato replied, "We'll be finished with these last two boxes in about twenty minutes. I'll help you finish up the food while Kou carries the boxes down to the recycling bins."  
  
Aki nodded and retreated to the kitchen. There he washed four cups of rice and set the cooker on. He then pulled out the vegetable mix he pre-cut each shopping day and measured out four portions. After returning that to the refrigerator he pulled out four packs of the pre-portioned chicken. Each was cubed and marinated for yakitori. Last he pulled the block of tofu and miso soup ingredients. By the time Takato joined him in the kitchen most of the chicken had been grilled, the vegetables had been stir fried, and the soup had been simmered only awaiting the tofu.  
  
Takato smiled at him and helped him finish the soup, plate the food, and carry the dishes to the table. Aki panicked briefly when he didn't see any chopsticks lying next to the new chargers, but calmed when Takato pulled two pairs from the kitchen utensil drawer. He usually placed his back on the table when washed but after thinking about it figured their storage location was actually probably better.  
  
Aki packed up his share for tomorrow's breakfast and placed it next to the rice balls he'd originally made for this morning then sat at the table with his new roommates as they all ate lunch. They choose to avoid anything personal during their conversation instead discussing the latest games out for their consoles, the rising cost of groceries and gasoline (something that was preventing Aki from taking the leap to the scooter he really wanted), and local politics. Akihito found Takato and Kou easy to talk to and when they offered to clean up from lunch he relented so he could retire and finally get some sleep. 


	2. two

_The concrete was cold and damp. He shivered as he tried to find a comfortable spot to rest. He wouldn't sleep that wasn't allowed. His captors had long ago decided that he was more likely to shift if he was exhausted._   
  
_In truth they were correct. He used to try and sneak short naps in when he knew his captors were away from their video monitors but he no longer did that. Now he fought sleep as hard as they tried to prevent it ever vigilant to ensure he didn't shift into even his halfway form. It was getting harder everyday._   
  
_The bare light bulb hung far out of his reach flickered and Aki pulled more of his body into his chest. He wrapped his arms about his head whimpering before the steel door opened. He prayed it would be the smaller research assistant but was dismayed when a deep bass rolled through the small cell._   
  
_"Still being stubborn?" Aki didn't need to look up to see the tall curly head of black hair crowning the heavy brows of the man. He knew each of the man's physical features by now. His angular nose resting above thick lips on top of a small black goatee and his shaggy black chest hair always visible regardless of if the man had buttoned his shirt or not. Both were imprinted in Aki's vision even when his eyes were closed._   
  
_Aki felt the man kneel by his trembling form. "I have news. Do you want to know what it is?"_   
  
_Aki didn't really, but knew if he didn't answer the beating the man was about to dish out would be ten times worse. He nodded his head without looking up. The man didn't like verbal answers anyway._   
  
_"I've found a buyer for the drug!" His voice sounded gleeful. "I had to find a new one. The first one gave up after you refused to shift for him." Aki felt the man's fingers comb through his dirty greasy hair, "That wasn't very nice of you." Pain lanced across Aki's scalp and he was certain several hairs were ripped from his head. "It took me nine days to improve the formula. Then I had to convince someone to use it. I still had to accept a lower bid than the first one since you won't shift for our cameras. You do it to make me look bad, don't you?"_   
  
_He didn't give Aki a chance to answer that. He pulled him across the concrete floor by his hair. Aki tried to get to his feet to follow but he wasn't quick enough and both his hip and shoulder became red with bloody scrapes._   
  
_The 'Doctor' as he insisted Aki call him when Aki was allowed to speak yanked the boy's arms over his head fastening them into the tight leather cuffs attached to chains hanging from the ceiling near one wall of the tiny room Next came the tight collar. The bindings forced him to the balls of his feet almost unable to keep them on the floor. If he lifted them, his arms would pull painfully from their sockets. If he tried to rest them flat, he'd choke._   
  
_The first couple of hits were actually the hardest. Not that the man hit him with any less force with the others but Aki was typically swift to retreat to his own head space after the first couple. This meant that though the beating continued he'd miss most of the sounds._   
  
_This time though the 'Doctor' had something new planned. He dug around in his deep pockets and pulled out a vial and syringe. Aki wanted to struggle but the bindings didn't allow for much movement and he was forced to accept the clear liquid the man pumped into his veins._   
  
_Fire ran through his limbs. Then the man started hitting him. Large fists slammed into his kidneys and his stomach. Aki screamed._   
  
He jerked awake, panting and sweat drenched while clutching his covers. The dream was not uncommon though the end was new. The researcher that had kept him locked in the small concrete room had beaten him often. He'd also drugged him though never with anything that felt like the fire in his dream.   
  
He'd only escaped because the guard's thought him to beaten down to watch him closely when they'd put him in the van to transport him to whoever the 'Doctor's' buyer was. A stop for gas and a run by both of them to the toilet had allowed Aki enough time to shift and escape through the narrow bars of the cage and out the open front passenger window. That had been the winter before his fifteenth birthday.   
  
He slowed his breathing and then startled at the sound of someone in the living room. A quick "hoo rah" and "good job, man" eased past the bedroom door. Aki remembered his new roommates and realized that if he listened he could hear the background music of Final Fantasy X playing. Apparently one of them was gaming. He was suddenly glad he never screamed allowed when his nightmares took him.   
  
He ran a hand over his face and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was near six and his alarm would be sounding in a few minutes anyway. He might not feel rested after the dream but he'd been asleep for nearly five hours and that was more than enough to keep him awake through the rest of the night.   
  
Aki tossed his covers back and stood. He stretched bunching and relaxing every muscle in his body first all at the same time then individually. He arched his body backwards bending nearly in half before he was forced to right himself. He could do a backwards hand stand but he saw little point in the confines of the small room.   
  
Once he'd finished stretching he rummaged through his closet for clean clothes. He grimaced when he realized he only had one clean pair of pants. They were his nicest blue jeans and he'd rather not wear them when he knew he was going to be crawling through bushes and hiding in trashy alleys. He looked over the room and wrinkled his nose. It looked like he'd be straightening up the place before he took a shower. If only so he could find a relatively clean pair of pants.   
  
Cleaning up the room really didn't take very long. For one thing the mess was primarily dirty clothes and book marked photography magazines. He had a clothes basket. His reasoning for not typically using it was that he kept it stowed in the far corner of the room and he wasn't a particularly good shot when he chucked his dirty shirts, pants, socks and underwear in its direction. He rummaged through the undone laundry on his floor getting his socks and underwear into the basket first. He tossed in his t-shirts and a couple of the hooded button ups he liked when just picking them up curled his sensitive nose.   
  
He finally found a pair of jeans that weren't too bad. They smelled sweaty to his nose and he was certain another shifter would smell they hadn't been laundered recently but they'd have to be pretty close to him meaning the humans he worked with wouldn't be able to tell. He tossed them on the bed with his last pair of clean underwear and followed with a dark blue t-shirt printed with the English words 'Sorry I'm late my cat was sitting on me'   
  
The apartment had two bathrooms an ensuite attached to his room and a guest bath between the other two rooms. The water was warm as it sluiced down his body. Taking the sweat and linger stench of fear that he'd woken with. He lathered his hair and body with the grapefruit shampoo he'd found on sale smiling at the memory of the purchase.   
  
The Alpha had insisted on accompanying Aki on the shopping trip to outfit the apartment, even after Aki had threatened to spend all his money. The older shifter hadn't been daunted at the threat. Not that Aki even tried to go through with it. For one thing he didn't want to feel beholden to the man any more than he already did. He knew he hadn't gotten the nice apartment on his own merits and that even if he'd been able to afford the place on his own he'd have never been able to by the furniture it needed. So he'd actually been very careful as he'd dragged the Alpha around the second hand shops about Tokyo.   
  
The Alpha had put his foot down about the furniture that would be in Aki's bedroom. Aki had planned on just picking up a used futon and some blankets but the Alpha had steered him away from that and told him that bedroom furniture had already been ordered which is how Aki had a king sized, English bed frame with a cloud like mattress and several sets of silk sheets.   
  
Aki had insisted on furnishing the rest of the place with second and in case of the couch third hand items he could refurbish. He still recalls the looks of surprise the Alpha had given him when he'd turned the old dark brown wooden kitchen table and mismatched chairs into the set he currently had in his dining area. He'd not believe the old chairs and the large fake white tiger skin throw rug Aki had found could be used for anything useful again.   
  
Aki didn't spend long showering. He needed to ensure he got to his stake out point before dark so he could scope out the best place to hide once the sun went down. He turned off the water and grabbed a fluffy towel; another set of items the Alpha had insisted he have. Not that Aki argued much about them. They were quite frankly his favorite of the Alpha's purchases. They were almost the size of twin mattress sheets and were thickly woven cotton in bright teal with soft embroidery of a large black cat cuddling with a much smaller white and grey kitten.   
  
That Aki sometimes pretended the cats were he and the Alpha he kept firmly to his self. He shook his head at the thought now. Work that was what he needed to think about not the one time the Alpha had shifted with him. Thought now that he'd thought about he couldn't help the soft smile that rose to his lips at the memory.   
  
It had been nearly two weeks after Aki had first awoken in the Alpha's bed. He'd already healed from the injuries he'd sustained attacking the man that had held the twins captive. The Alpha had released the collar that had kept Aki in his halfway form a couple of days before, telling Aki that the doctor had given him the all clear for shifting.   
  
The first thing Aki had done was to shrink down to his Iriomote form. He'd done it primarily because the two weeks prior had been the longest he'd ever been out of the form since escaping the laboratory that had held him hostage for nearly six months. He felt safer in his cat form as it gave him not only the claws and teeth to defend his self, but was small enough that he could squeeze into places most people especially humans couldn't reach.   
  
The Alpha had smirked at his small form and run a large warm hand down Aki's back saying, "You really are a Kitten in this form." It had annoyed Aki at the time and he'd leapt off the bed right at the man with his claws out intent on showing the Alpha he wasn't a Kitten of any sort.   
  
His back claws got caught in the sheets of the man's bed, though and he fell short of his mark falling towards the hard floor. He'd been shocked and comforted when the Alpha had caught him mid fall. Gathering his then trembling form against his chest. He'd soothed Aki with long strokes across his furred back. It had removed a lot of the irritation Aki had felt at the Kitten remark.   
  
Then the Alpha had ruined it by commenting that little kittens should really look before they leapt. That had Aki popping the Alpha in the nose before leaping to the floor and running out the bedroom door. He'd been intending on finding a piece of furniture to sharpen his claws on in true retaliation to the overbearing man only to hear a playful growl behind him when he turned the corner into the living room.   
  
He'd glanced over his shoulder to see the largest cat he'd ever encountered prowling out of the bedroom door. The ebony colored leopard mad no sound beyond the soft growl. At first it scared Aki so badly that he'd frozen. Upon seeing his fear though, the Alpha had lowered his massive frame to the floor in the marble hallway.   
  
They'd stayed like that for more minutes that Aki could think to count. When the leopard made no move to approach him he'd worked up the courage to move towards him. Aki remembers moving slowly across the floor tense with anxiousness at what damage the huge paws could do to him. He'd known the Alpha was some sort of cat the smell had been all over the apartment and though Aki was cognizant that the man's right and left hand men as well as his niece and nephew were also cat shifters the smell of comfort only came from the Alpha. He hadn't been certain what he'd do if that smell went away.   
  
So he'd allowed his body to relax as he crept closer to the smell and before he realized it his tiny form was curled between the huge cat's front paws and nestled under his chin. The Alpha had given him one long lick across his back before rolling him over. He was just about to do the same to Aki's tummy when in a fit of playfulness Aki had popped the leopard's nose and leapt away.   
  
This time though he'd wiggled his butt to entice the leopard to play chase. They'd then spent nearly an hour with the Alpha catching a releasing him before the man' penthouse door opened to admit two screaming children. Both were upset that their Oji-san was playing with the kitten without them. Their mother, the Alpha's sister-in-law, had laughed and promised that she'd fix them all lunch if the two of them were willing to play with the children.   
  
Aki had chirped yes to the woman's question already having been introduced to the woman's special foreign recipes and recognizing the smell of tomatoes, Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese from the grocery bags.   
  
Aki had spent the next hour and half playing with the little cubs. It had been an afternoon of revelations. Not only had the stiff Alpha with his stern voice and demanding ways relaxed enough to play chase with Aki he'd furthered Aki's burgeoning desire to allow the claim the Alpha insisted he's was going to make anyway by displaying a profound ability to deal with small cubs gently and kindly. The Alpha would make a good father.   
  
Aki shook his head and slapped his hands over his face. He had to stop thinking about that man. What did it matter that the Alpha would be a good father? It wasn't like he'd be giving the man cubs. There were plenty of more important, more beautiful, and hell more normal shifters in the world he could choose from. Aki was certain that if the Alpha just allowed the proper space between them he'd realize that whatever desire he thought he had would pass. Then the Alpha would be able to look for someone else, perhaps even a normal Omega, to claim.   
  
Still Aki's hands crossed over his lower belly as he raised his head to look at his self in the mirror. He shook his head before hanging the towel. He firmly pushed thoughts of the Alpha from his mind and started mentally reviewing what he needed for the night's stakeout. He crossed to the bed and pulled on the clothing he set out before turning to his camera cases.   
  
He had two of them. The larger one held his specialized lenses for art and model shots. He never took it with him when he did stake outs. For one thing it was heavy; its weight added to by the special padding between lens compartments. For another the bulk of the items in it and in fact the case itself actually belonged to the Alpha.   
  
Asami kept insisting that it was a gift but Aki felt uncomfortable with that. Asami wasn't his Alpha even if Aki's own stubbornness was the only reason why.   
  
The smaller one was his from before he'd help rescue Asami's niece and nephew. It wasn't anything more than an old but deep zippered canvas pouch that had had a small cut in one side. Aki had made a second similar cut about six inches from the random one and threaded an old canvas belt through the two holes before gluing the pouch to the belt. The notches on the canvas belt were reinforced with metal grommets and were punched an inch apart for the length of belt.   
  
He wore the resulting set up over one shoulder and across his chest so that it hung down to his left hip and he could tie the bottom of the bag to his left thigh so it didn't flop around and make noise when he moved. It wasn't glamorous or even pretty; the canvas had stains Aki didn't really want to try and identify. It was roomy enough for his camera and the small lens he used for his stake outs, though and had a small carabineer he could clip additional things to if he needed.   
  
Over this he pulled a sleeveless zip up hoodie with four zippered pockets. He filled the two smaller pockets with emergency cash and an extra micro sd card for his camera. He put a pair of fingerless gloves, a folded multi-tool, and a small leather pouch in one of the large ones and in the other he put a pack of his favorite Chocolate Almond Crush Pocky before zipping all pockets. He took a deep breath before opening the door to the living area.   
  
Takato and Kou were sitting on the low couch. They were each sitting in a corner of the old piece of furniture slumping in a way he'd never seen any of the Alpha's men ever relax. Aki realized as he caught his self gaping that they were sitting that way to make the couch more comfortable as like the Alpha both were several centimeters taller than Aki and if they'd sat up straight their knees would be bent awkwardly up towards their chests.   
  
He'd seen the Alpha sit like that every time he'd visited the flat; however, Aki had never done anything about because he'd hoped that the uncomfortable seating would make the man visit less often or better yet not at all.   
  
Still the poor quality and limited options his third hand furniture had given suddenly embarrassed him. The Alpha would have bought him any furniture he'd wanted. He'd have probably bought items much more expensive and massive than the 3DK could hold if Aki had just let him. The lumpy, worn out couch and lack of side chairs was entirely Aki's fault. _Just how much did the Alpha care, that the man, though obviously use to only the very best, never complained about the poor seating when he visited?_   
  
Kou looked up from the game he was playing when Aki pulled the bedroom door closed behind him. He smiled, "Looks like you're headed out." He stood and stretched. "I won the right to join you tonight. Do I need to bring a change of clothes or will my Sable form be OK for the night?"   
  
Aki paused in crossing the apartment's front room and turned to stare at the man confused. "Won?"   
  
Takato laughed, "Yeah, won, we both wanted to go but figured that at least one of us should stay human and available by phone not far from where ever your stake out is in case actual muscle was needed."   
  
Aki relaxed, that made sense. They'd both want to be able to be in their shifted forms. Hadn't Takato said he liked to spend most of his time in his animal form. The brief surprise that the two men would fight over spending time with him was shrugged away; after all who would willingly choose to spend time with something as unnatural as he was?   
  
Takato stood and switched off the console and television. "I think we should pack a backpack of clothing for you, Kou. I'll carry it on me that way you'll have something just in case. Besides if the stakeout takes all night we'll want to switch places anyway."   
  
Akihito gave the older shifter a small smile. "I wish I could tell you how long it will take." He entered the kitchen and opened the fridge raising his voice so they could hear him as he pulled several rice balls out of the fridge and secured them in plastic wrap before tucking them into the same pocket his box of Pocky was stashed. "I often don't know where the target will be until really close to the time of the meet ups."   
  
"That is fine, Akihito. We'll play it by ear. Kou has a motorcycle so he's going to head out from here once you've determined where you'll be holed up for your shots." Takato smiled at Aki as his head came out of the fridge. "I'll change once you say you're ready."   
  
Aki nodded, "I'll be ready once I fill my water bottle." He reached over the kitchen sink and pulled down a reusable bottle and filling it in the sink. The black metal gleamed in the bright lights and the carabineer attached to the bottle's neck clanged. When it was full he twisted on a plastic lid and then slipped a dark grey drawstring bag around it before clipping the carabineer to one of the canvas belt's open notches. He zipped up his hoodie.   
  
He turned to Takato to find the man had slipped into his Tanuki form. His blonde brown hair had taken on a reddish color as it covered his small dog like body. His forefront and back paws and legs were all covered with dark brown nearly black fur as was his muzzle and around his eyes. He looked like a cross between an overweight fox and a western raccoon. In his mouth he held a small collar and leash.   
  
Aki knelt down and took them as he said, "You look nothing like a dog. Is it even legal for Tanuki to be pets?"   
  
"There is a piece of paper in a plastic protected tube on the inside of the collar. It gives you permission to move about Tokyo with a collared Tanuki as part of a Tokyo University study. The Mammalogy and Ecology departments have hired you to take their lab Tanuki around to various places in the city and photograph if and how it interacts with the local native Tanuki." Kou said as he took the collar and turned it over to show Aki the tiny plastic tube on the back of the collar before securing the item around Takato's fury neck.   
  
"Besides, most people will think you've got one of those pet raccoons that were popular several years ago. In all the years I've worked with Takato I've never been asked about his collar." Kou laughed, "He gets a lot more grief when he has to carry me around in my Sable form." He reached up and took the clip end of the leash and attached it to the steel loop in the collar. "He'll be able to get on the train with you like this," He stood, "Though you'll have to hold him so he doesn't get crushed. Just take the collar off once you get positioned so he can keep up with you without catching the collar on anything should you need to squeeze into a tight place."   
  
Aki nodded and looked down at the Tanuki, "let's go."   
  
He thought he'd feel awkward with the shifter leashed like he was, but Takato acted like it was no big deal and actually gave several of the train passengers doggy smiles as they rode out of the wealthier wards and into parts of town that were questionable at best. His editor had texted him as they rode the train with the location of the meet up. It was down by the old wharves. In fact it was a very familiar abandoned warehouse where he'd aided in the rescue of two adorable baby leopard shifters and was subsequently captured by their alpha uncle.   
  
The fact his feet slowed as he realized which of the buildings he was going to stake out that night was not lost on his psyche. Takato slowed with him and tugged on the leash with his teeth. Aki paused and bent down to remove the collar. He rolled them up together and stowed them in the pocket with his dinner before moving around to the back of the building.   
  
There were no signs of life or activity in the warehouse so he crept into the building via the back door and looked around. The meet up was supposed to be between a smuggler and a prominent member of the city council. What they were smuggling was unknown and the reason Akihito had been chasing the story.   
  
Takato followed him around the warehouse as he checked and double checked all the possible hiding places. He glanced at the tall stack of pallets near the back of the building. It was strange to be scoping out a stakeout in his human form in the same building he'd so often slept in as an Iriomote. He sighed and pointed to the office building as he whispered, "I'm going to cam out up there. They will likely no stray far from the front entrance but that location will allow me to photo them almost anywhere they go in the building while keeping me hidden.   
  
Takato nodded at him and trotted off into the darkness. Akihito assumed he went to find his own hiding place where he could easily trade with Kou should they decide to do so. He quietly climbed the low building where the bulk of the warehouse's electrical equipment was stored and then to the top of the stack of crates that rested on top of it. This time he didn't even peek into the empty office but instead used the open window to aid in his climb to the top of the building with in the warehouse.   
  
The top was nearly bare wood and metal. Thick beams from the low roof of the warehouse were only a few centimeters above his head as he crawled across the wooden planks and metal cladding of the building. He scraped his hand as he crawled catching it on an exposed screw and cutting it open across the palm. He hissed to his self and squeezed the hand closed while he worked his way to the best location to take his pictures.   
  
The roof on the office was slanted slightly towards the front of it. Aki assumed that was to help prevent any leaks from the overhead skylights that dripped onto it to roll away from the equipment shed behind. What it gave Aki was an additional four to six centimeters between the top of the office roof and the nearest steel roof beam of the warehouse. He was able to sit up and lean against the beam as he pulled out the small leather pouch that held his tiny first aid kit.   
  
It wasn't anything more than four or five antiseptic wipes and a tube of liquid Band-Aid. He'd tried to keep a small towel and a little alcohol for larger wounds but found that it was truly just best if he shifted. He studied his palm and thought briefly about shifting for it. The cut was deeper than he'd thought and was really starting to hurt. He looked out at the sun and frowned. If he shifted he wouldn't have time to redress or be able to stay silent while he did so in the confined space before the proposed meeting.   
  
He wiped the blood away from the cut and ran a line of liquid Band-Aid down the center of it. It stung like nothing else he'd ever felt and the hiss of pain as the liquid did its job was almost loud in the silence of the warehouse. He glanced quickly around the place before sighing internally with relief that no one could be seen.   
  
He briefly wondered where Takato had hidden himself which reminded him that he was supposed to text Kou when they found the meeting place. He pulled his cellphone out and quickly typed out a message to the number Kou had given him earlier. He had just gotten the phone put a way and his camera prepped when the doors to the warehouse opened with a loud screech.   
  
Two men dressed in dark gray pants and shirts waved a large white delivery van through the now open doors. The van slowly backed into the warehouse where it parked and two other men exited the truck's cab. The sun would not be fully set for another ten or so minutes. Summer nights were easier to stake out because there was so much more time between the information about a possible meet up and the actual time it would take place.   
  
Still Aki wasn't idle while the group waited on whomever they were meeting. No, he carefully took photos of every one of the guard's faces for though they all acted like underlings anyone of them could actually be the boss of the crew and the one the Councilor was meeting that night.   
  
When the last rays of the sun disappeared below the unseen western horizon Aki heard the approach of two more vehicles. The doors of the warehouse were opened again to allow two dark sedan's with deeply tinted windows entrance. One the cars were parked facing the double doors the passengers in the back of each exited them. Aki could not see the two men at first because the crew with the white van turned on several flood lamps carefully pointed towards the middle of the Warehouse to reduce light leaking out of the space.   
  
It was plenty of light for Aki to see what the men were pulling from the back of the van. He found himself unable to look way as he captured image after image of young male and female shifters chained and collared in their halfway forms. Some couldn't be older than five or six. Others looked to be as old as their mid-twenties. All were malnourished, ill clothed, and clearly beaten into hopeless submission.   
  
Aki seethed inside. Eager to get the photographic evidence to condemn the monster that was the Councilor. So he was ready with his camera poised to catch the shot when the man came around the van and smiled sadistically at the shifters being pulled out of the van's cargo area. Aki snapped several images of him slapping a young female with fox ears and tail to her knees before shoving his crotch into her face. The man's back was to Aki but he knew what the girl was begin forced to do just based off the sounds and crude jokes floating up to the rafters.   
  
He wished he could send the man to jail for this. Yet, he knew that his photos would only out the shifter world to the humans and that doing wouldn't prevent the horrors below but most likely increase them. He'd have to find some other way to ensure the man was punished. He was running various possibilities through his mind when the Councilor shouted, "Come check your merchandise, Sakazaki, I had a little pet at home I want to play with before the night is done."   
  
Aki squeezed the auto burst button down on his camera just before it fell with a clang to the metal roof before sliding to the left and becoming jammed between the roof and a steel beam and thus announcing his presence to the entire warehouse. He needed to run. He knew that getting caught would be the worst possible outcome of the evening, but he sat there frozen in the blinding assault of memories that ran through his brain.   
  
None were good and all centered around the overly large hairy ill kept man that had held him prisoner for almost six months. Six months of the man trying to prove that he was a shifter by performing painful experiments on him through torture and drugs. The man he'd only ever known as Doctor paused and looked up at his hiding spot. Aki needed to run. 


	3. three

Aki tried to close his mind off. He could no longer stand the screams that came from the concrete cell across from his. He couldn't stop the torture even if he did shift. His arms and shoulders burned from the way they'd been stretched over his head and the tips of his tows bled from the scrapes they'd gotten when he'd tried to scramble for purchase in order to give his arms and shoulders even the briefest of respites.  
  
Sakazaki had pulled him higher that morning, or was it night; in truth Akihito no longer knew what time or even what day it was. It had been the middle of July when he and Takato had been captured. At first they'd kept track of the number of days by scratching them on the walls with the pieces of broken concrete in their cells.  
  
Then his heat had come and Sakazaki had separated them. He'd taken Aki up several flights of stairs and forced him to lay face down on a thin mattress before chaining his wrists and ankles to the four feet of the metal bed frame. Aki hadn't wanted to count anything after that. Frighteningly, he still knew the exact number of strange men that visited the room. Even in his heat he'd cringed from their touch and wept that he hadn't allowed the Alpha to claim him.  
  
It was all Aki ever really thought about anymore. Their days were split only by the variations of torture and the occasional servings of food. Takato and he had given in and shifted for their tormentor early in their captivity. It had done nothing to prevent or lessen the beatings or rapes.  
  
He tried to open his eyes when the cell door creaked. He didn't like not knowing what was coming. He needed time to prepare himself for whatever it was that Sakazaki intended to do. His eyes however were so dry and swollen that he couldn't open them. So he had no way to prepare to be suddenly dropped from his hanging position to the hard floor.  
  
"I've found a buyer for you little kitten." Sakazaki laughed. Aki heard the sounds of a bucket splashing with water. "Clean yourself up and then switch into your cat form for the next several hours. I don't want the man to think he's getting damaged goods."  
  
Aki felt the prick of a needle. He wanted to argue but knew it was futile. Maybe with a buyer Sakazaki would think twice about beating him when the change didn't do a lot to heal his battered body.  
  
Asami Ryuichi was apocalyptically enraged. Kirishima and Suoh had not seen him this angry since he'd determined that his parents' deaths were not accidental. That incident was still whispered about in the shifter world and was only given greater mythic standing because it had involved the slaughter of several smaller clans during his revenge. Still that rage was nothing in comparison to what Asami exuded when he learned his Omega had been taken by shifter slavers.  
  
That Asami blamed himself was part of the rage. He'd not spent any time checking the story Akihito was pursuing. He'd known it was a local city politician and since none of them were on his radar for the missing shifters his group was investigating he'd foolishly thought that his little kitten would be safer chasing drug dealing Councilors than catching wind of the encroachment of flesh peddlers in their world.  
  
What was worse was the fact that Asami himself had turned the flesh peddling investigation over to his Hong Kong partner Liu Fei Long because he was busy trying to find the source of a new drug that was forcing his people and all shifters to revert to their halfway forms. He'd already had to bribe, threaten, and hypnotize several hundred people from one of his own night clubs because the drug had been slipped into the drinks of several shifters out for the night.  
  
So it was with vast irritation that he finally made the connection between the two only after the images on his kitten's irreparable camera were recovered. That had taken nearly three weeks. First his men hadn't realized the pieces they'd picked up from the warehouse floor were from his kitten's camera and the device had languished in their Forensic lab for over a week. It had only been because Kou had offered to help work on breaking into the Councilor's personal computer that the pieces had been recognized.  
  
While taking a break from trying to track who the Councilor had been making deals with he'd watched as the lab techs were busy pulling finger prints off of every piece of trash and detritus they'd found in the building and immediate area. The young tech he was chatting with had been complaining that they hadn't yet made it through half and so far none of the finger prints they had gotten matched anything in the Japanese or Interpol databases. Kou had casually asked what they'd gotten off of the hard drive in Aki's Camera as he watched the tech pull and prep the pieces for finger printing.  
  
The rest of the past two weeks had been spent with the computer techs trying to piece together the fragmented data that the shattered drive was willing to give them. He had not been surprised at the Councilor in the images or the numerous pictures of beaten and battered shifters chained together. He had been shocked at the presence of Sakazaki. The human had tried to do business with his underground network several times. Asami had never trusted the rat enough to allow him access to his routes.  
  
What had truly angered Asami however were the images of Sakazaki beating his kitten and then Takato, who had leapt at the man teeth bared in his Tanuki form. The last image was of Sakazaki's men tossing both of them, Akihito and Takato into the trunk of his sedan before leading the van away from the warehouse.  
  
It had taken them another three weeks to catch an auction and Asami wasn't going to leave anything to chance. They'd spend a week ensuring that peeper viruses were planted in the man's computers. He carefully watched and recorded each and every sale of the Shifters he'd carted away in the white van that night. Akihito had gotten close ups of each terrified face. His cryptologists broke the human's encoding and tracked the payments back through their multi server multi country bounces to identify the buyers. Yet, he still waited to move on the man.  
  
Then it happened, three days ago a new auction was announced. His specialists had already created an account giving Asami access to make his own bids. His Kitten's image, along with Takato's, was splashed across the dark web site. The bidding had been furious and it had taken a significant amount of American dollars to win. However the amount had ensured he be able to pick is purchase up in person.  
  
Now he waited. His three piece suit hid his Kevlar vest and the buttery Italian belt was a clever disguise for the thin, wire garrote his father had gifted him over a decade in the past. There were no less than four knives hidden on his person and both his Ceska Zbrojovka and his Beretta were well concealed by the cut of his jacket.  
  
He sipped at the whiskey in his crystal tumbler as he stared at the sun setting over the Tokyo skyline. _You'll be back with me soon Akihito. Then I'll never let you go again, Kitten._  
  
"Asami-sama, it is time." Suoh's voice sounded through the office intercom system.  
  
Asami rose and slipped into his suit jacket tugging it straight as he schooled his features. Sakazaki had wanted to meet him in person each time Kirishima had delivered his refusal to work with the man. Now he would get to.  
  
The elevator ride down to his limo was silent as was the garage when he entered it. The area was filled with nine rows and ten columns of men. They were his ninety best guards and each was fully outfitted in infiltration gear. Black cargo pants topped with long sleeved black t-shirts over which black tactical jackets packed with varied ordinance. M4 Carbine machine guns were pared with Glocks, Berettas, and SIG Sauers pistols depending on the individual soldier's preferences. One whole row on his men carried a variety of sniper rifles. No one not wearing the Sion Panther would be leaving Sakazaki's buildings alive this evening.  
  
Each member of the group had been drilled on how to recognize both Takato (one of their own) and Akihito. They'd also spent the past week learning how to recognize the four remaining shifters beyond Takato and Akihito that had not yet been sold via the web site.  
  
The attack would be two fold. Sakazaki had set up to deliver Akihito and Takato to Asami in the same warehouse that the man had caught them. It had been established early in their surveillance that the man never traveled with less than four bodyguards and that he never did business on his personal property. That was probably how he'd stayed under Asami's radar for so long. Everyone in Japan's underground knew not to let Asami Ryuichi learn you trafficked in people.  
  
That meant that the man would be leaving his compound to deliver the two shifters to Asami and leaving the place in the hands of his second. Suoh would lead seventy of their men to overrun the place and take control. No quarter was to be given to members of Sakazaki's crew.  
  
With Asami and Kirishima the other twenty men would travel and surround the warehouse to take Sakazaki alive once Asami had confirmed he had both Akihito and Takato in his possession. Kirishima would lead that group while Kou would play both chauffeur and bodyguard.  
  
Asami nodded to his men, raising his hand in the air before speaking, "I have asked you to protect every type of person from school children to Ambassadors, and even Yakuza lords. I've sent you out to capture evil and rescue the foolish and weak. You have laid your lives on the line for other's greed and stupidity."  
  
The group of men yelled, "Hai!"  
  
He continued, "I do not know how a human has discovered the shifters' secrete, but his misuse of the knowledge cannot go unpunished. He has kidnapped and enslaved our most vulnerable people. We do not allow this to happen to humans that know nothing of us. We will not stand idly by while it happens to our shifter brethren. Will you fight for their freedom?"  
  
The group gave a resounding cheer and Asami smiled. Only Kirishima, Suoh, and Kou knew the smile for what it was. "Mount up and good hunting!"  
  
The group split, with most piling into large black SUVs and pickup trucks from the United States. The vehicles were larger than any sold in Japan and not exactly legal on Japan's narrow roads. The other smaller group piled into the smaller more typical Japanese sedans and SUVs. They were still black but held fewer people and meant they would attract less attention that the larger groups.  
  
Asami held the smaller group back for nearly twenty minutes while he, Kirishima, Kou, and the squad leaders reviewed all the entrances and exits from the warehouse again. He wanted to give the first group time to get to their rendezvous point for one thing, but also it would not take them as long to reach the warehouse.  
  
They departed ten minutes later and Asami listened as the first group with Suoh started reporting they were in place as his limo pulled in front of the warehouse. Kou flashed the head lights and the doors squealed open for them to enter.  
  
The Warehouse was lit with dimmed flood lights all pointed to the back of a white van. Asami exited the Limo as one of Sakazaki's men opened the back of it. Takato was pulled roughly out of the back. He was hobbled in chains and holding a thick hard sided briefcase. Asami peered into the back of the van. It was empty.  
  
Sakazaki had him dress. The shorts were a little too big and Aki had to pull the string tie waist as tight as he could to keep them up. The t-shirt was also larger than he needed drooping down his front and off one shoulder. His feet were left bare as they chained his ankles together with a short length of steel wire. A heavy length of chain was wrapped about his waist several times before his hands were locked together behind his back and then to his waist. They walked him down a bright hallway before stuffing him into the trunk of Sakazaki's sedan.  
  
The ride felt like it lasted hours and when he was pulled out of the trunk he was not shocked that it was still dark. He'd long stopped being able to judge the passage of time. The dock they were at was nowhere near the old warehouses that Sakazaki had captured him at. The place was clean and though dark it was because the lights were turned off and not because they were broken.  
  
He was led carefully down a long pier between numerous house boats and quiet yachts. They stopped at one and Sakazaki called out "Yuri, I've brought a gift."  
  
Aki trembled at the shifter that came to the end of the gangplank. He was tall with broad shoulders and a lean waist. His blond hair was trimmed shorter than military requirements and his eyes were narrowed above a sharp nose and chin. He looked Aki up and down before sneering. "I didn't believe you when you told me what you had, Sakazaki. I will pay you what you asked." He stepped aside. "Welcome aboard."  
  
Two men came up to Sakazaki and Aki when they reached the other end of the gangplank. One gripped Aki's arms tightly the other held out a brief case open so that Sakazaki could see the piles of American money filling it. He smiled nodded and then started back across the gangplank before turning and smirking at Aki, "Have fun, little kitten."  
  
The yacht's crew barely waited for the human to step back onto the pier before they were pulling the gangplank on to the deck. The yacht was pushed away from the pier and met a tug boat to be pulled out to sea. Aki watched the Tokyo skyline shrink then flinched when a loud boom and bright orange light lit the sleepy pier. The man Sakazaki had introduced as Yuri smiled cruelly down at Aki's prone body. "That human will never be able to tell anyone who bought you." He grabbed Aki's hair and dragged him down the steep stairs to the lowest deck.  
  
They drug him to a room below the deck. It was empty except for another cat shifter. They shoved him into the room and locked the door. Aki crawled over to the other shifter and found him barely breathing. It was a young boy his hair was white blonde with black tips and Aki caught a glimpse of pale nearly white blue in his eyes when the boy cracked them open. The youngster was covered in bruises and burns.  
  
Asami punched the man they'd captured at the warehouse again. "Where is the silver blonde cat, you had for sale?"  
  
The man coughed up blood and weakly answered, "I told you. Sakazaki, just said to return his purchase price to you. Apparently a better deal came through for him. Please, I just work for him. I don't handle sales just delivery."  
  
Asami growled and nodded his head to his second. He was done here. Kirishima aimed his sidearm and shot the man through the head. Asami pulled a cigarette from his suit coat and lit it. He inhaled the smoke needing the nicotine to calm his raging emotions.  
  
The attack on Sakazaki's compound had been a success; they'd annihilated the man's group and rescued nearly a dozen shifters from several parts of the world. The raid had netted them the man's hard drives as well. Kou was currently combing through them to see if he could find where Akihito had been taken. He'd refused to allow someone else to do it regardless of the bullet wound in his dominate arm.  
  
An hour after interrogating Sakazaki's man Kou called Asami. "Found him. Buyer is one Arbatov Yuri. Sakazaki was to deliver him to pier I've forwarded to your phones at the same time you were at the warehouse."  
  
"He took him out to sea?" Asami could help the desperation in his voice. If Akihito was delivered to a ship or yacht he was out of reach. It could take him days to figure out what ship he was on and where it had taken him. Not to mention that if Yuri Arbatov was a member of the Russian Arbatov clan they'd have possibly already sold his Kitten to someone else.  
  
They were notorious middle men even among the shifters of the world unrepentant about any actions they took to procure whatever it was they'd been sent for. Worse Asami knew Yuri was a psychopath harboring a deep hatred of any human or shifter that fell outside of his ideals. The man hated abnormalities what kind of condition would Akihito be in if they found him? _Please be ok, Kitten_  
  
Kou's voice brought Asami's attention back to the phone call, "Got you!" Kou laughed before sobering, "Asami-sama, I've found the boat. It seems to just be floating at sea."  
  
Asami signaled his right hand men before saying, "Send the transponder number to our phones. We'll head out now." Asami stood grabbing his pistols as he did so. _Hold on, Akihito, I'm coming._  
  
He worried about the boy he'd left behind but he'd seemed insistent enough that Aki craw through the Ships air conditioning vents with his gestures and out right pushing of his small cat body towards into the passage. It wasn't like he gave Aki a lot of choice to move on when he'd refastened the grate behind him.  
  
He crawled until he found the engine room. He remembers the boy scratching something that looked like a large room with a large box in the middle of it. He wasn't certain what the kid had wanted him to do but the engine room was full of nooks and cubbies in which he could probably hide. Still he felt silly just hiding on the ship. The best option was to find a lifeboat and get off. That however would mean a large yacht would be chasing him. He looked around the engine room and then smiled to himself It the engine didn't work it would be hard to chase him.  
  
There was a lot to be said for being such a small breed of shifter and even more when one was a runt like Aki. It had in the past helped him get free of big bullies and was helpful now. Though, in the past he'd had an entire city to run and hide in. For now though he was huddled below the grill plates between the yacht's primary engine and the fuel and coolant lines. The crewman trying to figure out why said engines had gone dead had not yet checked the lines.  
  
Aki looked around and shuddered. It hadn't been much of a hiding place to begin with. He gingerly climbed further down into the bowels of the ship. He needed to find another place to hide before the engineer thought to check the lines. Aki had shredded them and the smell of pooling fuel would reach then man's noes sooner rather than later.  
  
It was easier to move about the small spaces than he'd have thought and he grudgingly thanked Sakazaki for allowing him to shift earlier in the evening. He'd not been able to heal the worst of his wounds but the smaller ones had closed up and most of the bruising was past the sage of causing him pain. It meant that the leaps and hops he was taking about the lower engine rooms didn't do more than jar healing bones.  
  
He heard shouts from the area he just left and made another leap, this time to the floor of the room he was in. There was almost no light and the smell of the petrol that had gotten on his paws was so strong it hid any other smells. He needed to find a way to clean it off.  
  
The small room let out into a large storage area. Large hinged crates and barrels took up the corners of the large area but the most space was taken up with a large steel container. It was bolted to the floor and the sides were solid except for two rows of tiny holes at the very top of the box. That must have been what the boy upstairs was talking about.  
  
Aki sniffed around the bottom of it but was stymied by the gas still on his paws. He curled his nose and looked over the other crates. One in the far back was marked as kitchen rations. He switched to his halfway form and dug quietly through the box, smiling when he came upon several large bottles of white vinegar. He pulled a bottle out and put everything back into the crate and closing it.  
  
Hiding himself behind the large pile of crates and over one of the room's drains, he quickly poured the vinegar onto his hands rubbing them thoroughly. He repeated the action several time sniffing his fingers between each treatment. Only when there was no more smell of gas did he stop. He left the vinegar bottle where it was and turned back into his cat form.  
  
The large steel crate intrigued him and he padded around it several times before a quiet voice whispered out. "Kto tam? [ _Who's out there?_ ]"  
  
Aki startled at the sound and looked wildly around before realizing it must have some from inside the container. The voice spoke again, "Pozhaluysta, pomogite mne. YA mogu zaplatit' tebe! [ _Please, help me. I can pay you!_ ]" The language sounded like what the boy several decks above them had spoken.  
  
The person, a male if the deepness of the voice was any indication, was apparently trapped in the box. Aki looked around the room and then climbed the tallest stack of barrels. He could almost see the top of the steel box from his new vantage point. It would be a risky jump but Aki wasn't about to leave someone trapped by the man on the upper deck.  
  
The box made a strange hallow sound when he landed on the top of it. Aki crouched down when it sounded waiting with tense muscles and ready to spring into hiding should someone come. When no one did he gingerly rose and padded around the top.  
  
Like the sides it was made of steel only the top had a pile of chains in the center and the holes around the outer edge were larger. In fact they were large enough for Aki to stick his kitten sized head through. He didn't of course, he was smart enough to know that pulling his head out might not be as easy as putting it in. However he did look down upon the white wolf shifter chained in the box. The man smiled up at him, "Nu, privet, malen'kiy kotenok. [ _Well, hello, little kitten._ ]"  
  
Aki knew he was a white wolf shifter because he was in his halfway form. He was kneeling on the floor but his wrists were tied with chains and pulled over his head. Now that Aki saw them he could tell they were the same chains that were piled atop the lid. He heard the wolf shifter gasps as he moved away, "podozhdi, kuda ty idesh'? [ _Wait where are you going?_ ]"  
  
Aki didn't shift and answer He couldn't understand what the wolf shifter was saying anyway. Instead he poked around the chains with his paws then smiled. Whoever had locked the shifter up had not done a good job with the chains on the top of the box. They were loose and only held together by a simple keyed lock. Aki almost laughed at the ease at which his claws picked the thing. He was forced to shift into his halfway to push the clanging chains down into the box. He heard the shifter grunt and fall against one of the box's interior walls.  
  
Aki changed back into his cat and peered down through a hole again. The man was lying on his side and freeing his wrapped arms from the chains. Once he was free he immediately shifted into a very large white wolf. Aki pulled his head back and searched about the top for a way to open the box.  
  
It took him switching back to his halfway form to find the release catch at the top of box. He flipped it and the side of the container clanged loudly as it hit the floor. Aki heard the yells of men coming down the dark hallway. Bright light flooded his eyes as he quickly switched back to his Iriomote form.  
  
Two men wielding long metal sticks barged into the room. They paused it astonishment at the open container. It was a fatal mistake. The white wolf leapt upon them tearing throats and limbs. Aki crouched on the top of the metal box his frightened mewls accompanying the growls and screams.  
  
The noises quieted but the sound of squishing followed. Aki imagined the wolf eating his kills and not wanting to see that either he kept his eyes closed and covered. He suddenly wished he'd not released the beast. What if the wolf was rabid? It wasn't beyond possibility. Warm hands picked up his shivering form and cuddled him to a warm broad chest. Aki peeked up to see a blonde male smiling down at him.  
  
The man raised Aki up so that they could look in each other's eyes. "Eto normal'no, malysh. YA ne prichinyu vreda svoyemu spasitelyu. [ _It is ok, little one. I will not harm my savior._ ]" The man carried him to the door and set Aki outside the expanding pool of blood beneath the two cooling bodies. Then the man knelt, "Eto yeshche ne bezopasno dlya takikh, kak ty. Moy dyadya kontroliruyet bol'shuyu chast' lodki. U menya vse yeshche yest' storonniki, i my vyigrayem bitvu, kotoraya vot-vot nachnetsya. Prikhodite, ya pokazhu vam mesto, gde mozhno spryatat'sya, i kogda u menya snova budet kontrol', ya zaberu vas. Eto yedinstvennaya dostoynaya nagrada dlya takoy khrabroy malen'koy Omegi. [ _It is not safe for one such as you yet. My uncle controls the bulk of the boat. I still have supporters though and we shall win the battle that is about to begin. Come I will show you a place to hide and when I have control again I will claim you. It is the only fitting reward for such a brave little Omega._ ]"  
  
He changed back into his wolf form, licked Aki all over, and padded away. Aki shook himself hating that he smelled of the Wolf now. Still he followed not certain if he'd gained a friend on the ship or an unwanted suitor. After all the only word he'd understood in the whole speech was 'Omega'. Still he followed the great cat into the darkness. Any shifter had to be better than Yuri.  
  
They crept up several stair cases and along the way Aki realized that the boat was strangely empty for the number of levels and cabins. Finally they went down some stairs that ended at a door barred shut by several pieces of steel rebar. The wolf switched to his halfway form and ripped the steel free of the door and yanked it open. Beyond the opening were nearly two dozen male shifters. Most were unclothed and in their halfway forms but every one of them looked worn and hungry.  
  
They were braced to attack at first glance but relaxed and gave a quiet cheer when the Wolf resumed his halfway form. They gasped and whispered, "Mikhal!" as they gathered around him. It was said often enough that Aki decided it must be the shifter's name.  
  
Mikahal spoke quickly to the group asking several questions whose answers first made him sad then angry. He spoke sharply after the last was answered and the group of men drew themselves to attention and saluted. Aki was all but ignored as most of the men filed past, yet the last one paused and turned back to speak with Mikahal.  
  
Aki doesn't know what the man said but smacks the man across the face with a growl before pointing towards the door. Aki cringes as the sound and once again hunches down to hide from the growling anger of the larger shifter. Once again the man picked him up and cuddled him against his chest. Aki assumed the man thought the action was comforting. It may have had Aki's memories not been filled with the scent and touch of someone else. Comfort was sweet whisky, burned tobacco, and that strange underlying smell that was all Asami.  
  
The man put him down again and spoke to him softly. He gestured inside the room that had been bared and Aki refused to enter it. He shook his head and when the man tried to pick him up a second time Aki ran. The man might mean well, but Aki wouldn't allow himself to be trapped anywhere while on the ship. He half expected the wolf to pounce on his feeling form. So, he was shocked when the wolf just jumped over him and ran ahead.  
  
It took Aki twice as long to climb the steps as it had to descend them. The first two hallways were clear when he traveled them. However he could hear the sounds of battle once he reached the main deck. He skidded to a halt as a pair of white wolf shifters rolled past him maws clamped around each other's back hips and dripping blood. Aki couldn't tell the combatants apart and soon found his self hiding again.  
  
He wasn't certain how long the battle went on but Aki watched form his hiding space as Yuri came running out of the cabin area dragging the boy that had shoved Aki into the air conditioning vents behind him. The horrid shifter was crowed against the prow's balustrade and was looking over at the life raft Aki hid under with an angry yet desperate expression.  
  
The man named Mikhail gestured to the boy and then to his self. He yelled at Yuri who brandished a knife and then held it near the boy's neck. The boy struggled as Yuri made his way to the life boat. Mikhail took a step towards them. Yuri pulled the knife closer to the boy's throat.  
  
Aki couldn't take it anymore. He still wasn't certain about Mikhail but the boy obviously knew the Wolf shifter and he clearly didn't want to go with Yuri. Aki didn't blame the boy for wanting to get away from the man either. HE gathered his small body beneath his self and as soon as the knife lowered while the man was suddenly blinded by bright lights coming from over the prow. Aki leapt.  
  
He attacked the man's wrist and the Yuri released the boy who ran right into Mikhail's arms. Aki meanwhile held on as Yuri grabbed his coat and yanked at him. It took several yells and pulls but finally Aki was yanked away from Yuri and thrown.  
  
He sailed over the side of the ship and plunged towards the dark waters. _If I ever see Asami again I will tell him that I am his Omega._  
  
The choppers approached the yacht from the prow. Their spot lights were blinding to the people on the deck but Asami immediately focused on the small grey kitten the man he knew as Yuri was flinging about. When the small body flew over the boat's side Asami didn't think before he plunged towards it.  
  
He was sure how but he captured the tiny form and hugged it to his chest as the cold sea water surrounded them. Returning to the surface took longer than he'd have liked and Akihito had switched into his halfway form as Asami fought his way to the water's surface with only one arm.  
  
When he breached the water he was forced to pull in several deep breaths before he could turn his Kitten over and check for a pulse. It was weak and the boy's breath was fluttering but he was alive. Bright lights focused on them and Asami saw as Mikhail a wolf shifter from a different branch of the Arbatov family rowed up next to them.  
  
It took several minutes to get both of them back to the yacht. Once there Asami was quick to dry his Kitten off. Akihito woke while he was checking him for wounds and pushed Asami's hands aside in favor of throwing himself against Asami's chest.  
  
Akihito muttered and growled at Asami complaining about him being late to get him and how he'd waited. It was all he'd been able to do. "What took you so long? I'm your Omega aren't I?"  
  
Asami didn't answer. He was trying to comprehend what Akihito was saying because all he'd hear was "I'm your Omega."  
  
"Your's" 


End file.
